New EMS/EIS principal named as Ephrata, Cocalico open Monday

Just months after joining the Ephrata Area School District as the new assistant principal at Ephrata High School, Jill Kling has a new title. At Monday night’s school board meeting, Kling was named to be the new principal at Ephrata Intermediate and Middle School, effective immediately.
Kling’s promotion to principal was brought about due to the resignation of Gangi Cucciuffo, who took a job closer to his home as the new principal at Fleetwood Middle School. Cucciuffo’s resignation was effective Aug. 13. Prior to his service at the middle school, Cucciuffo served as principal at Highland Elementary School following that school’s former principal Kim Schlemmer being promoted to Assistant District Superintendent.
“When it came time to select a new principal for the Ephrata Intermediate and Middle Schools, we knew we had to select a candidate who had a strong background in both middle school instruction and leadership,” said District Superintendent Dr. Brian Troop. “Fortunately, we had a high amount of interest and several suitable candidates come forward to be considered for this key position within the district.”
Before joining the district staff, Kling was a middle school principal in the Susquehanna Township School District in Dauphin County and South Eastern District in York County. Kling is currently enrolled in the doctoral program through Nova Southeastern University.
Along with her husband and two daughters, Kling was present for Monday night’s school board meeting.
“I am thrilled to be named the new principal at Ephrata Intermediate and Middle Schools,” Kling said. “I look forward to working with the talented staff who is dedicated to providing a quality education. I am truly blessed to be moving into a position that allows me to continue to serve such a fantastic community.”
Of her new position, she said that her family was also making it a lifestyle change. She explained that her family is in the process of relocating to a home within the school district. The family’s support and excitement was clearly evident even in their choice of meeting apparel, with “Ephrata Purple” being the predominant color.
While the promotion of Kling was hardly the only staff related change made official Monday night, one other of note was the hiring of Sarah McBee as the new Community Relations/Foundation Coordinator for the Ephrata Area School District. She will be replacing Gina Krouse, who transferred to another position within the district.
Most recently, McBee was the Marketing Coordinator and Group Fitness Manager at Universal Athletic Club for more than seven years. She had also been Marketing Coordinator for Doneckers in Ephrata until its closing in 2007.
McBee is an Ephrata High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications/Public Relations from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
Also of note, the board accepted the resignation of long time district-wide musical education instructor Galen Reed, effective Aug. 18.
Among the current staff openings, the district is working to fill the vacant high school assistant principal position, as well as a part time intermediate school music/strings instructor, playground aides, assistant wrestling coach, indoor guard instructor and quiz bowl advisor.
And finally, in a special presentation to board members, Tim McCormick, the district’s Director of Technology previewed the new district website which is set to go live by Thursday, Aug. 21. Besides an update in the look and feel of the website, McCormick unveiled sweeping new changes behind the scenes which will have long term ramifications in the site’s overall quality.
Key to those changes will be new technology which is much more user friendly and which will enable changes and updates to be made to the site with just a few clicks. To further this effect, administrators, teachers and coaches will be trained on such updates, giving them administrator rights to upload pictures taken on a smart phone within a matter of just a few minutes.
In time, McCormick said he envisions the site to include numerous layers for different school departments, sports teams, clubs and music groups. While each would have a unified, cohesive look and feel, they would each be dynamic based upon the group.
For additional information on Ephrata Area School District, please visit their website at www.easdpa.org. Gary P. Klinger welcomes your feedback via email at klingerglobal@gmail.com or on Twitter @gpklinger.